The American Forces Radio and Television service touched a lot of people. Whether talent, support or listeners it touched a lot of us in ways that stateside media could only dream of. This website is unofficial and does not imply any endorsement from AFRTS, the Department of Defense or the United States government.
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Thom Whetston

From 1972-97 I was a radio announcer, mostly in the Northeast. I had the most fun with Armed Forces Radio first in Korea then in Panama. A lot of the time it was spontaneous or improvised and that made for a great learning laboratory. The network DJs, Charlie Tuna, Wolfman, Kris Erik Stevens, Jim Pewter, LaRita Shelby and the rest were so consistent, it was and amazing thing to hear. Then to Massachusetts and WEIM, WKNE, WKBK, WFGL, WMDK, WKBR, WCGY, WSRS, WGAW. Most of them don't exist as anything that resembles a radio station. I'm always ready to trade war stories... Thom Whetston afrts@live.com 612-356-AFRS (612)356-2377

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Roger Carroll had such a neat career. Really a case of has done everything. Part of everything was a hugely long run with AFRTS. Roger Carroll Enterprises produced most of the 1970s recruiting shows aired Sunday mornings, everywhere. It's 1974. I wonder who plays records?

Saturday, August 27, 2016

In WWII GI Jill was big. The show started in San Francisco as "Hi Neighbor", a request show with news tidbits about back home with Martha Wilkerson and her husband, Robert Warner. After 56 shows Warner was out but GI Jill kept the show going well into the 1950s.

Thursday, August 25, 2016

"My Living Doll" is an American science fiction sitcom that aired for 26 episodes on CBS in 1964/65.

Just got off the phone with Peter Greenwood. Peter is a producer/archivist trying to get the TV series "My Living Doll" out on DVD, streaming maybe syndication. This would be a totally legitimate release. Julie Newmar is still around and she's really like to see these again.

The issue is that there were 26 shows. He's only located about a dozen. It was never in proper syndication. The only known syndication was on Teleprompter cable in NYC.

We get involved because AFN Berlin aired it in the late 70s. I'm sure I saw it on SCN in the early 80s. There were AFRTS prints. They were in libraries.

1. Would you have any of these, in any format.

2. Where did the film libraries go and when? I've always heard they were sent to AFRTS-LA and from there to the Library of Congress. Is that correct?
3. Do you know anyone who may be able to assist?

Charlie was very much a friend of the blog. It really was an honor when he posted this:

Charlie Tuna Having done almost 6000 shows, I never thought about saving those AFRTS vinyl discs each week, but thanks to people like Thom Whetston, I can take a walk down memory lane with digital quality, and all those shows shrunk down to CD size for storage!

Sunday, August 21, 2016

We've always had oldies. In 1965 that would have been music from the 1930s and 40s. Andy Mansfield did a pair of oldies shows for AFRTS. First was one with his wife Virginia in the 50s "Turn Back The Clock". Later he did this one "America's Popular Music".

On this broadcast Andy plays requests for our shadow audience, Americans that live overseas, residents of other countries. We always knew they were there but they were rarely acknowledged on the network.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Jim Ameche was on "Jack Armstrong, the All American Boy" and later became one of the first to successfully syndicate a DJ show, the voice of the Longenes Symphonette. In the 1950s he became a part of AFRTS, playing "the most beautiful sounds around". The spotlight is on Hal Mooney...

Monday, August 15, 2016

Our friend Chris was growing up in Frankfurt in the 70s and taped a lot of AFN. No way to put a date with any certainty on this, but here's a bunch of Jim Pewter.

You might well choose to re-phrase slightly, emphasizing that I was a German kid, and that - as a lot of German kids then - listened to AFN as a daily routine, which helped in improving our English significantly (I have had with some of my teachers a running battle when using american slang, instead of proper (university-style) English as they had been taught); pretty sure US-service people were unaware of Germans being part of their general audience!

Quite a few forums exist in which Germans emphasize the significant contribution AFN had on them and their lives, it is mentioned there that per year about 100.000 letters were pouring in to AFN in Germany, of which the bigger part was probably AFN Frankfurt (the APO number was I believe APO 057), and I remember getting one of my postcards actually being put "on the air" (you got that clip on the DVD as well, when Jim Powers - the Bostonian - presents "Baby Child" by Robin Luke "going out to Christoph in Offenbach, who hit it right on the head when he said that the most important bridge is "The bridge over troubled water".

Another German ex-AFN-listener - and I believe he has got a definite point on that - actually attributes the German radio-system targeted at young people as it still is today to the very existence of AFN and Germans listening to it!

The German public radio stations ran along the lines of the federal states, and were very much targeted to the mature establishment with German Schlager and orchestras. As young Germans were listening to AFN (and BFBS) with their stylish, amusing way of presenting modern (i.e. non-German) music, those national chains had to develop similar offerings in order not to loose their grasp on future audience. These turned out to be the "third program series" such as HR3 in Frankfurt, WDR3 in Dusseldorf, SWR3 in Stuttgart, etc. that today are actually the lynch-pins of their programs!

I remember as of early 1970s, these made big inroads into the German listeners-base of AFN, with SWR3 being the first specifically youth-oriented radio coming "on the air" with music and presenting techniques very much reminiscent to "my" AFN.

Sunday, August 14, 2016

The Whistler ran from 1942-55 in the states. Sometimes nationally, sometimes only in the Western states. There were movies, books. It was big. AFRTS had it many times well into the 80s. In the 1981 run it had apparently been picked up by a syndicator.

This appears to be an early 60s reissue of a 1946 show. The lawyer for the biggest crook in town finds himself the only witness that can convict his client. The story has a surprising and uncharacteristic finale.

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Don Tracy was from Hartford. Learned his trade at the Conneticut School of Broadcasting with gigs in Hartford and New Haven before the lure of California. Then to KGFJ, KABC TV and KDAY and KMBY in Capitola CA then where most of us found him AFRTS. In 1997 Don was selling at KNX after that he was a part of Malloy and Associates, an advertising agency in Los Angeles. Here's a short piece from 1983.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

I found some complete 1967 John Doremus shows. John originated in-flight music on aircraft and did a nighttime show in Chicago that was eventually syndicated by the airlines to a lot of stations. John was one of the giants of broadcasting in general and to AFRTS in particular

I ran these shows on SCN. The network had jocks all over the country record shows. It was the nicest surprise a few years ago when Joe found a box of them and asked if we would would like to hear them. That was an easy question. Thank you Joe!

Monday, August 8, 2016

Time for another visit with the Happy Hour! Roger Carroll for the USAF. Roger's getting the internet thing down. Roger was the booth announcer for the Smothers Brothers, Bobby Darren, Bing Crosby and other national things too numerous to mention. Thank you RC!

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Charlie was with us for 25 years, thousands of shows. Thousands of us at the stations studying how to do that. In 1995 AFRTS let all of the network jocks go. The system changed. From October 1995, here's Charlie Tuna's last show to the world on AFRTS.

About half of the network guys were vets. To me there always seemed to be a difference. Ira Cook was a WWII guy, who trained in medicine but the radio bug bit. He was another of the KMPC guys. Today Edmundo Rios is in the spotlight.

Saturday, August 6, 2016

If you ever come across these, they have nothing to do with AFN or AFRTS but are very interesting. The American Broadcasting Station in Europe (ABSIE) was a propaganda station we piped to the Nazis. Glenn Miller made several broadcasts at EMIs Abbey Road studios with Ilsa Weinberger with Glenn speaking in phonetic German. These particular broadcasts were recorded October 30th and November 6th, 1944 and aired November 8th and November 15th respectively.

Joseph Krug of the Colony Record Shop in NYC somehow acquired dubs of these and issued them as bootlegs circa 1951. These bootlegs actually had wide distribution at the time, being sold by major retail chains, to include Sam Goody. The Miller Estate started the lawsuits in 1951 and it took five years to resolve.

Decades later a more complete better sounding version was issued on RCA as "Glenn Miller - the Lost Recordings"

Friday, August 5, 2016

The network tried to reach out to everyone. There have always been many Latino soldiers. Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, most every country has been represented. In World War II "Chiquita" was one of the first AFRS shows directed to this audience. In 1955 the show was still running.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

One of the best ways to stay in touch is to add the AFRTSARCHIVE Facebook page to your list.

Afrtsarchive on facebook and your email with suggestions, things you've noticed (Hey, the link doesn't work!) and your AFRTS story is always welcome. Maybe you were at AFRTS-LA, NY, Washington or one of the overseas networks. Even if you weren't and were listening, what did the stations mean to you. It's a big, big story. Email Thom

Joe Allison was a songwriter, performer, record company executive and a DJ. Joe came along around the time of "Modern Country" and was responsible for modernizing "Hillbilly" radio. It was great. I just remastered this, enjoy.

Microsoft just put up a Windows 10 anniversary update. I don't recommend it. It made some big system changes here, which I'll battle for a couple of days and then probably roll back to something that works.

It killed Citrio, a Chrome clone browser that I have to use with some applications.

Charlie﻿ Tuna? Always great. How did he do it, always a great show and as close to perfect consistency than anyone. There have been a lot of greats over the years but for a Dan Ingram or a Larry Lujack there's changes over the years. Charlie never really changes, he nailed it.. Let's revisit 1973, it's Thursday. Stay Tuna'd. Visit the Charlie Tuna website www.charlietuna.com